A Foggy Situation

By

Joanne Kaufman

Dec. 4, 2012 5:03 p.m. ET

New York

Will Chase and Jim Norton launched into the song "Both Sides of the Coin" at a recent Wednesday matinee of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

The musical acknowledgment that things aren't always what they seem was the cue for the show's deck electrician to spring into action. She turned on a large squat tank filled with C02 to let it heat up and, while the audience was applauding the duet, stretched a wide gray hose to the edge of a drop curtain that obscured the backstage area. She checked the tank's pressure gauge, minutely adjusted the hose, then stepped back to let "nature" take its course. And presto, the stage, now dressed with tombstones and a mausoleum for a cemetery scene, was shrouded in an eerie low-lying mist. Ah, a foggy day near London town.

ENLARGE

Creating mood on stage with the help of fog and haze.
Joan Marcus

These days New York is pretty well socked in too, at least on and off Broadway. In addition to the revival of "Drood," adapted from a Charles Dickens novel, fog or haze plays a role in shows like "Mamma Mia!," "Jersey Boys," "If There Is I Haven't Found It Yet," "Wicked," "Chaplin," "The Book of Mormon," "Phantom of the Opera" and "Rock of Ages" (one of the characters in the show, set in the late 1980s, owns a "Fogmaster 5000" which is deployed to comic era-appropriate effect) and "A Civil War Christmas." The vaporous battle scenes in a recently departed production of "Cyrano de Bergerac"? The very embodiment of the fog of war.

Theater fog, which is heavy and low-lying, is very useful for dream—or nightmare—sequences, for conveying doom, gloom and mystery or heightening a sense of drama. Haze is higher-hanging, pervasive and excellent for creating beams of light, softening a stage picture or simulating conditions in a smoky night club.

"Fog is an effect moment. It dissipates quickly, whereas haze is generally there for the entire show," said Scott Zielinski, lighting designer for "A Civil War Christmas." "Once you start using it, you can't just make it appear and have it go away."

According to Jake Bell, production technical supervisor for "Phantom," the same type of machine produces both atmospherics, albeit with different ingredients. Fog is generally made with dry ice, mineral oil or glycol. Haze relies on mineral oil or a glycerin-based product.

Unlike the falling chandelier in "Phantom" or the aerial feats in "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," neither fog nor haze tends to be the subject of postperformance chatter. Still, "If it weren't there audiences would feel there was something absent, even if they couldn't put their finger on what was missing," said Anna Louizos, the set designer for "Drood." "It's a subliminal thing."

The ubiquity of these atmospherics is a relatively recent phenomenon, according to Merle Debuskey, a retired press agent. "They could achieve a fog effect in the late '40s and '50s, but they didn't know how to get rid of it for the next scene or keep it from spilling out into the audience," he said. "So, instead, they used lighting to create the atmosphere. It wasn't as much fun as fog, but it kept the orchestra section clear."

Technological advances have aided in the delivery system. "Mamma Mia!" and "Phantom of the Opera," for example, have ports in the stage floor that open on cue, release a predetermined cloud of mist, then snap shut. But shows like "Phantom," that either opened before pop-up portals or lack the necessary basement space for the mechanicals, do fine with hoses. The result, Mr. Bell says, is just the same. "When the candles pop up through the fog, it's magical," he said.

Magical, sure. Still, fog can be as temperamental as any diva. Humidity, air conditioning, air currents, changes in weather all affect how it performs on stage, affect whether it stays on stage at all. "Fog tends to go to the lowest place in the theater, which means the orchestra pit, and the musicians complain. We get complaints all the time," said Mr. Bell, who's also the technical supervisor for "Wicked."

Andy Fenton, the production stage manager for "Mamma Mia!" recalled a performance of the show several years ago in San Francisco when the chiller, a critical component of fog machines, didn't perform correctly. Thus, when the mist rolled out, "it appeared in a huge cloud and the entire stage was enveloped in fog and it slowly drifted out toward the audience." It may not have been good for the show, Mr. Fenton noted, "but it was very appropriate for San Francisco."

An Actors' Equity rule requires that performers "be advised by contract rider if smoke or haze will be utilized in the production." Stephanie J. Block has been so advised many, many times. "I have co-starred with fog for most of my career," said Ms. Block, the title character in "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," running down a résumé that includes stints in "Wicked," "The Pirate Queen" and "9 to 5." "I know in this day and age ambience is something the audience expects and fog isn't going away," she continued. "But I won't pretend it doesn't have an effect on my voice. It's an irritant. I feel it in my throat and nasal passages."

The director and Pulitzer Prize-winning librettist James Lapine feels it in other places. "Fog is really a pain in the ass to use. We had endless problems with it on 'Into the Woods,'" he said, referring to one of his several collaborations with Stephen Sondheim. "We literally had to turn the air conditioning on and off every night at very specific points in the show to control where it went. Of course, at the end of the day, if the audience is looking at the fog and not at the actors it doesn't bode well for your show."

Mr. Lapine did not learn fully from his experience. As director of the current revival of "Annie," he went full throttle on haze all through dress and tech rehearsal. But with the arrival of audiences at the first previews, "the air currents in the theater changed, and the haze built up above the stage looking like storm clouds in every scene.

"And," Mr. Lapine added, "it seemed like the sun would never come out tomorrow."

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com.